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Tomato Omelet

A quick omelet made with eggs, stewed tomatoes, and fried onions, finished in a pan and oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the eggs well and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Add the stewed tomatoes and fried onions to the eggs.

  3. If the tomatoes are thick, mix in 1 tablespoon of boiling water for each egg.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a pan and add plenty of butter.

  2. Pour the egg mixture into the pan, ensuring the center doesn't burn.

  3. When the underside is brown, place the pan in a 350°F (175°C) oven to finish cooking.

  4. Once light brown, fold the omelet and serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the structure of the omelet as they cook and hold the filling together.
Stewed tomatoes
Add moisture and tangy, savoury flavour to the egg mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, giving the underside a golden browning and rich flavour.
Fried onions
Contribute savoury, aromatic flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the center without burning. Eggs cook quickly and proteins toughen and darken at high heat, so the underside can brown before the centre sets. Moderate heat and finishing gently in the oven lets the middle set evenly without scorching.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, butter, onion):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, butter, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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